Motorola just crushed Samsung and Apple in one crucial phone category

You'd think the two companies that sell the most phones in the world would also be the best at making them easy to fix. However, a new report says you'd be wrong.

Samsung and Apple land near the bottom of a new repair scorecard

The US PIRG Education Fund just dropped its annual "Failing the Fix" report, and the results are brutal for Samsung and Apple. Samsung scored a D, and Apple came in dead last with a D-, placing the world's top two smartphone makers behind every other major brand evaluated.

Motorola topped the chart with a B+, while Google earned a C-. The report uses the European Union's new EPREL repairability scoring system, which replaced the older French repair index. This newer system puts heavier weight on how easy it is to physically open up and take apart a phone, which is arguably what matters most when something actually breaks.

Why Samsung and Apple scored so poorly

A big chunk of the problem comes down to software support declarations. Both Samsung and Apple offer well over five years of updates in practice, but they only declared the bare minimum of five years in the EU's EPREL database. That tanks their software support scores, earning both the lowest possible marks in that category.

Both companies also belong to trade groups like TechNet and the Consumer Technology Association, which actively lobby against Right to Repair legislation. The report docks points for that. Neither Samsung nor Apple earned any back by supporting repair-friendly laws, unlike Google and Microsoft, which backed a Right to Repair bill in Washington state.

Samsung also got evaluated on just five models because several of its phones weren't listed in the EPREL database yet. That's a smaller sample compared to the full 10 models scored for Apple and Motorola, which does make the comparison a bit uneven.

The report has limits, but the message is clear

One thing the EPREL system doesn't factor in is the cost of spare parts. That's a huge blind spot, because expensive repairs are one of the main reasons people just buy a new phone instead of fixing the one they have. The report's authors acknowledge this gap and want the EU to address it in future versions.

These grades should sting more than they do

I don't love the fact that Samsung and Apple, the two brands most people in the US actually buy, are sitting at the bottom of this list. Motorola and Google aren't exactly moving phones in the same volume, so the real-world impact of their better scores is limited.